Thread: Sizing loaded ammo?

I have a spare bullet puller if you want..... it has .223 collets you can loan it for the cost of postage
Send me a PM

Thanks @johnd I have a hornady collet puller, I’ll just put them aside again, I can’t be fff’d pulling them all and emptying all the powder and resizing.

Keep them in your weakest locked cupboard so they'll get stolen in preference to something else if you get burgled.

Pull them. Fu*k me if one went off when you were resizing it live you’d have some fun on your hands,��

Was the problem caused by a faulty sizing die, or "operator error"?

It would have been operator error, I normally don’t size all of the neck on my bolt gun and the die would have been set for that, obviously the AR needs the neck sized all the way.

I’ll just have to pull them all one day.

I've been pondering this and have a suggestion. While a body die will shift the shoulder and the case sides it won't touch the neck which you have identified as your problem. A lee collet die ($47) will size the neck but not touch the case body and shoulder. If you remove the mandrel from a Lee collet die and reassemble it, you are essentially left with a crimping die. The bullet in the loaded round will act as the mandrel that the collet will squeeze the neck against. This may work to reduce the neck diameter at the neck/shoulder junction enough to allow your reloads to chamber. Then again a Lee factory crimp die may do the same job for you. It will depend on whether it crimps the full length of the neck.
In any case, it's worth a try. With a combination of body die and a modified crimp die you should be able to resize these loaded rounds to fit your chamber. Trial and error!
Not owning a .223 collet die, I trialled it with a .308 round in the modified collet die and it works.

Rob, don't listen to us Sirens telling you to just go try and do it... stay safe.

Thanks @JWB I’ll try and find one to borrow, the other option is to get a volley for my Redding die that fits over the neck where the pill is seated but will still size down towards the shoulder.

Bloody autocorrect, volley was meant to read ‘bushing’

Right, now I’m really confused, I’ve pulled some of the projectiles and tried 3 different 223 dies and still have the bulge in the neck near the shoulder that is stopping the round from chambering, is there anybody close to me that can help, I’m at my fucking wits end and totally out of ideas, to make matters worse I’ve just found another couple of hundred with the same problem.

Cheers in advance guys.

Rob

Are the dies pressing firmly on the shellholder when you resize?
My only other guess would be the problem is a donut/thicker brass in the lower part of the case neck. All same brand, or is it in several brands of brass?

Excuse ignorance but are you using a small base die? So far as I know an AR needs a small base die for the ammo.Lee dies are apparently close enough to small base spec.

All same brass, RG all full length sized trimmed and chamfered.
Yes I have used a small base size die, as per photos, the neck is the problem, not the base
I’ve tried a Redding bushing die, rcbs small base die and a hornady die, all are adjusted so that the press cams over. i.e ‘full’ travel.

Does the brass show signs after resizing or seating of the projectile?

Will a fired case rechamber smoothly?

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